Abstract

It is a sad fact that there IS often a huge gap in South Africa between the constitutional promise of a life lived with dignity and respect, on the one hand, and the actual lived reality of people who are supposed to be protected by that Constitution, on the other. The hearings at the Jali Commission of Inquiry into the system of corrections in South Africa have revealed that many prisoners are incarcerated in circumstances that fall far short of those guaranteed them in the South African Constitution.